Friday, December 28, 2012

Taking full advantage of my companies holiday shutdown I was able to get another game of Muskets and Tomahawks in this evening with my good friend Roy Scaife. I continue to love this rule set and find it hard to want to play anything else at the moment.

Note: Selecting the Natural Talent adds an additional 5pts to the cost of the Officers below. That is, 5pts for the Talent + an additional 5pts for selecting the Natural Talent (see pg.39 of the rules).

Objective: Engagement - must kill 2/3rds of the enemy force (based on model count).Side Plot: Protector of his homeland: Choose a building on the table more than 12" away from any table edge. If your officer ends the game within that building without any enemy model also occupying this building, you have fulfilled the conditions of your side plot. (achieved)

Objective: Scouting Mission - must scout each quarter of the table (4x4' table, 4 quadrants).Side Plot: Capture: The mission of your officer is to bring back a prisoner. To do that he must kill an enemy figure in melee. Once this is done, place a marker near the officer to indicate tha he is carrying a prisoner. As long as your officer has this marker his movement is reduced by 1". To fulfil the conditions of this side plot your officer must leave the table by any table edge, still carrying the prisoner. (failed)

The British deployed 8" in from the table edge while the French moved units on as they got activated in the first turn (per the objective rules).

The first turn saw the British gaining their positions along the stone walls. The French advanced onto the table. The random event was very interesting --- number 16 which resulted in a heavy rain starting and lasting until the event card was drawn again. On the British Forward, Boys! card the British Grenadiers volley into a unit of Indians. With some hot dice rolling they managed to kill three Indians. The Indians get a rout result on their reaction test.

Initial deployment.

Deployment - from left to right - Colonial Militia, Grenadiers,
Regulars, Officer, Rangers and Light Infantry.

The Rangers are to take the stone wall on the right flank and the
Light Infantry to hold the woods directly ahead of them.

Light Infantry gain the woods across from
the Compagnie Franches de la Marine.

Compagnie Franches de la Marine in the woods
across from the Light Infantry.

The Rangers gain the stone wall and pour
fire into the French Regulars.

British Regulars and Grenadiers face off against the Indians.

One of the three Indian units gain the pig pen and start
firing on the British Regulars.

End of turn 1 positions.

Turn 2 saw the French pushing hard on the British positions but the hard cover offered by the stone walls was hard to break . The British Light Infantry kill five Compagnie Franches de la Marine and they recoil out of the woods. I have to say the 4+ shooting for the Light Infantry made the real difference here vs. the 5+ shooting for the Compagnies Franches de la Marine. The British Regulars go over the wall in an attempt to close into short range (12") of the Indians in the pig pen (as the penalty with it raining at long range is -2 to shooting) - but an Indian card comes up and they kill three of the British Regulars forcing them to recoil back over the wall. Another Indian unit firing from the woods kills two Colonial Militia and they recoil. Rangers fire on French Regulars killing two but to no effect on the reaction test. The Light Infantry kill one more Compagnies Franches de la Marine but that also has not effect on the reaction test.

At this point the random event card is drawn and the raid effects end. The new random event is "A leader is born." A random unit is selected and one of the models from that unit is promoted to an officer. One of the French Regular units is selected (randomly determined) and they gain a second regular officer. This actually ended up hurting that unit in the long run as they got reduced to five models not long after and could have used that additional model to maintain firing line and six or more models for reaction test purposes.

The British Grenadiers retaliate against the Indians (who shot the Colonial Militia), killing one and sending them into flight. The British Regulars fire on the Indians in the pig pen and now that the rain has stopped they manage to kill three. The Indian unit in the pig pen routs on their reaction test. The Rangers continue to fire on the French Regulars killing three and forcing them to recoil.

Rangers hold strong at the wall against the French Regulars.

Colonial Militia advance after taking a couple of casualties
from Indian muskets and recoiling.

The Light Infantry holds strong in the woods against
the Compagnies Franches de la Marine.

End of turn 2 positions.

Turn three sees the random event card come up as the first card! We get "Under pressure." - until the end of the turn, when a new card is played, roll a D6. On a result of 6, that card is not resolved and the turn ends. Ouch! I had been rolling hot all game and got a little nervous on this one! As it turns out we would not roll a single six through the entire deck ... calling the game at the end of turn three (British attained their objective of killing 2/3rds of the French force and there was little left for the French to do ... with not enough figures to complete their objective successfully).

Much the same firefights against the Indians occurred - reducing them to a single unit in flight by the end of the turn. What was very fun was the French Regulars charged the Rangers at the wall .. and drove them back. Roy's dice had been cold all game but they came back for this melee. The Rangers suffer three killed while the Regulars suffer two casualties. The Rangers recoil.

The Rangers charged two times after being recoiled to retake the wall. They where driven back a second time but the third time, after being reduced to just two models (vs. a single French Regular) they finally killing the last remaining French Regular from that unit.

While the Rangers are feeling good about retaking the wall, a French officer decides to go all in and avenge his fallen comrades. The two remaining Rangers are charged by the newly promoted French Officer (from the earlier random event). They fight three rounds of melee before the Rangers finally take down the French Officer.

The last two Rangers stand triumphant at the stone wall.

The last French Regulars in flight decide to fight another day.

The British Officer achieves his side plot.

A hard day for the Colonial Militia.

﻿

End of game positions.

Overall a great game. The British positions at the stone walls really made all the difference here as well as my hot dice rolling throughout the game. This was the first game that we used talents in -- just taking the basic talents for Regular Officers - tactician.

I've decided to make measuring sticks for the common movement and shooting ranges. I'm also going to get some "rubber chopsticks" that can be used to move models in and out of the woods. I'm also going to create a "morale marker" that holds the army morale card and has dial's for 1/3, 1/2 and 2/3rds army strength as it is important to keep track of this for several objectives, side plots and for the purposes of adding the morale card into the deck (which for the French would have been added in turn four in this game).

Monday, December 24, 2012

I've just finished basing another round of French and Indian War units. I've added three units of Indians (6 each) and an Indian Chief. That rounds out the two units and chief I already have done (adding a 6th Indian unit shortly). I can now field a force that consists completely of Indians. All my Indians are from Conquest Miniatures (also distributed by Warlord Games).

I've also added a unit of Light Infantry (12) to my British army. The models are from Redoubt and are a bit on the chunky side of things but they'll be off on their own so it shouldn't matter too much. Another special thanks to Artmaster Studio for great work.

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Got together today with Roy Scaife, Jeff Hummel and Dan Kerrick to play some games of Muskets and Tomahawks. We both played on 4x4' tables and had a great time. In our case the French ruled the day winning both games! Lots of pictures at the end of the report.

Objective: DefenceSide Plot: Boldness - The French officer needed to end two (rolled D3+1) movement activations within 12" and LOS of one of my units. (Failed)

The French deployed their units within 4" of the town (two buildings in roughly the center of the table). The Indian force lay in reserve needing to roll equal to or lower than the current turn number (tested at the start of the turn) to see if they arrive along their table edge. It was turn 4 and 5 before both Indian units made it onto the table.

Random events encountered:

Some men have spotted a patch of unstable ground - Dan was nice enough to put a big pile of very difficult terrain right in front of one of my firing lines.

Let's go - both Dan and I put an irregular card back into the deck. What is funny here is that this was timed with my Rangers advance on some Compagnie Franches de la Marine. I knew he had exhausted all of his irregular cards -- well, he put one back in -- but I had all four of mine! Of course, his card comes up first, he shoots the rangers, killing 4!!! Rout, bye bye Rangers!

Prudence - One of my British firing lines moved towards a nearby woods ... which was good as it was bringing the unit into LOS and range of one of the Indian units that had just arrived.

Casualties amongst officers were high in the 18th century as Daniel Morgan can testify - this was both a tough one and absolutely hilarious! I lost my officer (it was 50/50 between the Indian Chief and my officer) but he was desperately needed at this point since both of my firing lines needed him for their reaction tests! He just up and had a heart attack ... right there in the middle of the battle --- that bastard!

The British regulars advanced up the road and the leading French firing line put a volley into the lead unit giving them 5 casualties to start ... ouch! They gave just as good back though and eventually all but two of the French Regulars lay dead on the field of battle. The British Grenadiers took a lot of fire from both French Regulars and the Compagnie Franches de la Marines. Eventually only a lone British Grenadier remained (hadn't routed either!) and he made his way over with the remaining British Regular firing lines.

Once the French Regulars got cleared out of town the game got locked into a distance firing between newly arrived Indians and what was left of the British Regulars. The Compagnie Franches de la Maine tipped the scales at this point against the British.

Three key turning points in the game. The first was that the Indians (French allied) didn't get onto the table until late in the game - turn 4 for the Chief and one unit of 6 and turn 5 for the other.

The second was the British Rangers advancing to melee the Compagnies Franches de la Marine. The British has 4 irregular cards in the deck and the French just a single one (added by a recent random event). The French card came up first and the Compagnie Franches de la Marine shot the Rangers and did 4 casualties ... with the reaction test being rolled low and resulting in a route (poof!).

The third was when the British officer died from a random event (heart attack we speculate ...) - this occurred right when he was most needed and essentially sealed the fate of the British forces.

Objective: EngagementSide Plot: Boldness - The French officer needed to end two (rolled D3+1) movement activations within 12" and LOS of one of my units. (Achieved)

Random events of encountered:

Moment of doubt - no effect.

Desertion - unit of Indians tested but passed their reaction test.

Both armies came on the table with the British getting the initial round of cards and movement. Both armies exchanged fire at long range with light casualties. French Grenadiers formed into firing line and broke the stalemate by delivering massive casualties upon a British Regular unit (7 casualties, dropping them below 6 models and taking the firing line away). That British Regular unit went to flight and was destroyed later by additional fire.

The left flank of the British held with a British Regulars unit holding a stone wall throughout the game. Turning point was British Rangers failed to get into melee with French Regulars - a French forward boys card and French Regulars series of cards drove off the British Rangers.

With the British Grenadiers getting hit hard, the Regular unit being destroyed and the Rangers getting destroyed the British morale card entered the deck. The British pulled the morale card and broke, ending the game.

Both the French and British achieved their sub plots. Win to the French.

Several clumsy events occurred (outside of the game) ... the best was Roy attempting to roll a bunch of dice into the most excellent dice shield and completely missed it while hitting it and sending it flying across the table ... we all had a good laugh at that!

I considered actually tomahawking some Compagnie Franches de la Marine!

The dead pile is full ...

The end --- my 42nd officer has a heart attack!

It was a fun day of Muskets and Tomahawks. I really just can't get enough of this game ... it is just so fun and every game is very different from the next with little plots, twists and turns build into the foundation of the game play!